


That's What I Hate About You

by Wimmy



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Background Relationships, Cheesy, Eventual Relationships, Falling In Love, Fluff, Love/Hate, M/M, Mentions of homophobia, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Racism, Sassy Minghao, Slurs, Stubborn Seungkwan, Sweetheart Seokmin, also, as if he isn't already the sweetest thing in the universe, for like a second tho, okay i couldn't help but throw one more little ship in there, wonwoo and hoshi are too good of a pair, you have no idea y'all lmaooooo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-01-15 08:06:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18494833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wimmy/pseuds/Wimmy
Summary: Mingyu and Seungkwan are both part of the student government. Everyone KNOWS Seungkwan should be the President, but being Mr. Popular, Mingyu took the position. Seungkwan is bitter about the situation and just wants Mingyu out of his hair, but Mingyu has other ideas.Just a self-indulgent Gyuboo fic I've wanted to write, and wrote instead of writing my other WIPs lmao





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to That's What I Hate About You! GyuBoo's dynamic fits this concept so well, so I just decided to write it. It's not going to be that long, so I hope you all like shorter stories. Thanks for reading, lend me some kudos, and drop a comment! Please enjoy!

Boo Seungkwan was your average student. He did his homework most of the time, studied and whatever. He got A’s and B’s on his report card and he was content with that. He’d been a part of the Student Body Council (SBC) since freshman year, and now that he was elected once again as Vice President his Junior year, he’d been on the board for 3 years. Most of his friends are the same as him, making his life nothing out of the ordinary, except for one thing. The SBC President, whom he worked with almost every single day, was the bane of his existence.

Kim Mingyu, all around popular, self-proclaimed perfect guy, made his life a living hell. Kim Mingyu was one of those popular guys who played sports year round, always had a girl hanging on his arm, looked like he was chiseled out of a marble block, and charmed everyone around him. Just his very existence made Seungkwan annoyed. Like, who the hell did he think he was walking around like he’s the hottest thing in town? Absolutely no one, but he still did it, flirting with anyone and anything, trying to charm them with his looks and stellar personality. Of course, if they knew the real Kim Mingyu, not so many people would like him.

For the last two years, he’s been tormenting Seungkwan like it’s his job. Their jobs on the SBC are intertwined, so they worked together on basically everything. Well, they were supposed to. Mingyu was always dumping his work on Seungkwan giving him stupid excuses like he had to study or had to be somewhere, but he knew that was a lie. Mingyu didn’t care about school, all he cared about was hanging out with kids equally as popular as himself and making everyone like him. Seungkwan, being the confrontational boy he is, tried his damnedest to get out of being Mingyu’s slave, but it didn’t work. Unfortunately, he, like almost everyone else, was weak to Mingyu’s charm. Imagine to most good looking person you’ve ever seen is leaning into your space, staring straight in your eyes, begging for a favor. You’d say yes, right? So would Seungkwan, and he did, so he got stuck doing Mingyu’s work because his gay little heart couldn’t say no to a handsome guy.

That wasn’t even his biggest problem, though.

Ever since last year, Mingyu’s been sticking to him like gum in his hair, and he doesn’t know what the hell to do about it. Mingyu tracks him down in the morning JUST to say hello, insists on sitting with him at lunch, and tries to spend every minute he can with Seungkwan. Not only was it annoying, it was starting to piss him off. Seungkwan wasn’t easy, he didn’t just become friendly because someone was a little nice to him, he got taken advantage of because of that, so he promised himself he wouldn’t do it anymore. So he rejected all of Mingyu’s stupid friendly gestures. Sure, it made him seem stuck up and rude, but he wasn’t in the mood to get his heart stepped on again.

\-----

There was an SBC meeting that morning. They were supposed to be deciding what themes to vote on for homecoming and choose spirit days for the spirit week before Hoco weekend. Seungkwan had sent out the reminder last night that the meeting was starting at 8:30 a.m. on the dot, but Kim Mingyu was nowhere to be found. He decided that they’d carry on without him.

“Alright everyone, we’re just gonna get started now. So, we’ll start with the themes for Hoco. We did a survey around the school and asked what everyone thinks we should do, but that didn’t work because only like, 15 people did the survey and the answers weren’t serious. So, does anyone have any ideas?” Seungkwan said. Several hands shot up in response.

“Wendy.”

“We should do Hollywood or something like that. Red carpet maybe?” Wendy said. Seungkwan scribbled that down.

“Okay, Jungkook.”

“Halloween? It’s right around the corner anyways.” Jungkook put in, gaining a general murmur of agreement.

“Nayeon?”

“We could do an under the sea themed hoco, like the little mermaid, maybe.” Nayeon said.

“But couldn’t Disney attack us over that?” Someone across the table asked.

“Why would they? We’re just doing a theme.” Someone else replied.

Seungkwan stood up. “Okay, I’ll look into it, but for now we’re putting it on the list. Now, Hani’s turn.”

“Well, last year we did a grand ball theme, so why not continue the trend? We could do a masquerade theme.” Hani said. There was another chorus of agreement, coming from most of the table.

“Okay, I’ll put a star next to that one since everyone seems to like it.” Seungkwan noted as he wrote it down. “Okay, anyone else have any ideas?”

“OH! ME!” Lucas, a freshman, said, waving his arm around in the air wildly.

“Let’s hear it.”

“How about an enchanted forest theme?” He suggested.

“Oh, okay, that sounds interesting. I’ll put a star down next to that one, too.” Seungkwan nodded. He lookedthe list of themes over before standing once again.

“Okay, so we have Hollywood/Red Carpet, Halloween, Under the Sea, Masquerade, and Enchanted Forest. Not too many suggestions, so we can just put this up in another survey and wait for the results. Okay, now onto--”

Before Seungkwan could finish, the door opened, revealing Mingyu, in all his late glory.

“Good morning, everyone, sorry I was late. I accidentally overslept.” Mingyu laughed, walking over to his seat next to Seungkwan. Several voices popped up saying, “Oh, it’s okay,” and “Good morning, Mingyu,” making Seungkwan roll his eyes.

“So as I was saying--”  
“What are we talking about?”

Seungkwan glared down at Mingyu, who simply smiled at him earnestly.

“Well, since you were LATE, we decided on themes for hoco. I’ll tell you them later, but now, we’re going to pick and vote on spirit days for spirit week.” He said through a fake smile.

“Oh, okay. Well, I think we should avoid days we did last year.” Mingyu nodded. Yet another chorus of agreement went around the room.

“Yeah, we’ll try to. Anyway, let’s hear some suggestions.” Seungkwan continued.

The rest of the meeting was slow, mostly due to the fact that Mingyu kept interrupting with his stupid comments and ideas. Unlike themes for Hoco, there were a lot more suggestions for spirit days, probably because it was easier, and it wasn’t like they were going to decorate the whole school for a spirit day. In the end they came to the conclusion that they’d have Movie Day, International Day, Meme Day, courtesy of Jungkook and Lucas, Pajama Day, Job Day, Tourist Day, and Animal Day. Seungkwan personally didn’t care what kind of spirit days the rest of them voted on because he didn’t participate that often, but he thought they came up with a good list. At least it was better than last year’s, which they did not talk about.

“Okay, everyone, I’ll give these lists to Mr. Smith and Mrs. Johnson and see if they approve. Once I get the green light, we’ll be deciding on decorations and going over our budget with them along with our treasurer, Wendy. Meeting dismissed!” Seungkwan said. Everyone began packing up, then shuffled out of the room. It was 8:50, so they’d have class in 10 minutes. Seungkwan wanted to use the time to stop by his locker and get something BY HIMSELF, but no, Mingyu had to tag along.

“Hey, that was great,” Mingyu smiled, “If I was up there, it wouldn’t go so smoothly, hah.”

“I know, but maybe try to be on time next time. You’re the President, you need to show them that you’re serious about it.” Seungkwan huffed. They turned the corner and Seungkwan made a beeline for his locker.

“Wow Kwan, that hurt. You think i’m not serious?” Mingyu asked, right on his heels.

Seungkwan quickly unlocked the lock and threw the locker door open. “Don’t call me that, and if you were serious you’d be doing all the work I do for you. Now leave me alone, I’m going to find my friends.”

“You’re so mean, Kwan, I’m doing my best,” Mingyu whined, “And I wanna hang out. We never get to talk anymore, just you and me. What happened?”

“There was never a you and me, Mingyu, goodbye.” Seungkwan replied, closing his locker door then walking away. Mingyu didn’t follow him as he weaved his way through the crowds of students, trying to get to the cafeteria. His friends Seokmin, Dino, and Minghao usually waited for the bell to ring there, so he figured he’d join them today, since the meeting took up most of his morning.

Pushing through the cafeteria doors, he saw his friends sitting at one of the tables at the back of the room. Seokmin and Dino were eating, while Minghao was talking about something, very animatedly. He made his way over, dragging a chair with him, then plopped down with a sigh.

“Rude.” Minghao frowned.

“Good morning, to you, too Kwannie.” Seokmin grinned.

“UGH, guys, he’s so annoying.” Seungkwan groaned. Dino and Minghao both rolled their eyes.

“What did he do this time?” Dino asked.

Seungkwan took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “He was late this morning to the meeting, y’know, like he has the option. Then he kept on interrupting me to make comments on stuff I was already talking about.”

“Can you stop telling us the same things over and over again? _That’s_ getting annoying.” Minghao said. He wasn’t wrong, though. Seungkwan did tend to complain about the same things because Mingyu always did the same things, but those things irked the hell outta him, so of course he wanted to talk about them.

“Minghao, if I could, I would, but Mingyu doesn’t change. He hasn’t changed since 7th grade.” Seungkwan retorted, leaning his elbows on the table. “If I didn’t have to deal with him, I would be the happiest person on Earth.”

“No way, we all know that Seokmin is the happiest person on Earth, even if he’s going through it.” Dino countered, lifting Seokmin’s chin up, who smiled brightly and giggled in response.

“He just wants to be friends, Kwannie, just give him a chance. He’s been trying since last year, right?” Seokmin asked, sending Seungkwan a quizzical look. He rolled his eyes in response.

“You know why. I don’t want a repeat of Vernon.”

Just saying that name made Seungkwan’s mood sour. He’d made the mistake of befriending him freshman year when he was innocent and unaware of the talk going on behind his back. It was Vernon who approached him first. They had a few classes together, so it was easy for them to talk, and Vernon was just so nice. It was like the heavens had dropped a gift right in front of him. They became close, always hanging out together, “studying” together, and sticking to each other like glue. Seungkwan didn’t really mean to get that close, but he did end up crushing on him. He kept it a secret until spring break, meaning for them to enjoy the break, but even closer than before. Of course, when he’d asked Vernon if they could meet after school, right before spring break started, he wasn’t expecting Vernon’s entourage to show up. He’d nervously told Vernon that he thought they were gonna meet just the two of them, and then his friends stepped in, telling him how gay that was. He could literally feel his heart shatter when Vernon agreed with them. There was no way he’d do something like that, he wasn’t gay or anything like that, Vernon said. Then they asked Seungkwan if _he_ was gay, which he wouldn’t comment on, because he didn’t want to out himself, but he didn’t wanna lie either. They assumed his silence was a yes, then left, telling him they’d be telling the whole school about the gay kid, Boo Seungkwan.

He spent that whole spring break crying his eyes out at Seokmin’s. His friends gave him all their support, staying by his side and comforting him. That was the first time he’d seen Minghao and Seokmin angry. He didn’t want them to be mad on his behalf, so he told them it was fine, that it didn’t really matter because he wasn’t gonna talk to Vernon anymore. But how could they not be mad? Some douche just broke their friends heart, of course they were gonna be mad.

When they got back from break, he was expecting all sorts of chaos. He thought his locker would be destroyed, filled with hate and ridicule, but… nothing happened. Everything just, carried on like normal. He did find out, though, that Vernon’s friends tried to make a big deal about it, but they were met with backlash and criticism. He decided to let that part of his memory go, make it nothing more than something that happened, like the fact that he had to give a presentation in front of the whole school in 8th grade. He moved on.

He obviously didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Vernon, so he chose to keep his friend circle small. Kim Mingyu was exactly the guy to do the same thing, and Seungkwan wouldn’t be fooled again.

“If you say so, Kwannie.” Seokmin said, taking a bite out of whatever horrible breakfast bar they had on the menu that morning.

“Doesn’t even matter, though, we only got this year and the next left, then you can kiss him goodbye. Forever.” Minghao noted.

“Yeah, good riddance.” Seungkwan mumbled. The bell rang, reminding them that they had to go to their classes. They all slowly got up and made their way to class. Hopefully, he wouldn’t bump into Mingyu the rest of the day.


	2. Chapter 2: For You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello everyone I am back with a new chapter fresh off the press! Just a quick TW: Racism and Slurs. It isn't a Wimmy fic if there isn't something semi-serious tossed in there lol. Also I tossed in a stupid little JunHao thing because I couldn't help myself hehe. Anyways. , ., ., thank you for reading, and please enjoy!!

It was Spirit Week, unfortunately, and Seungkwan couldn’t be more stressed. They’d come to a consensus that almost nobody cared for the survey because when they’d announced it and set up a voting table, no one voted. So, they voted amongst themselves in the SBC, along with Mr. Smith and Mrs. Johnson. They ended up choosing Lucas’s Enchanted Forest theme and moved forward with the budget and spending plan. They were given a small loan of $2,000 to spend. He let Wendy go over that with a few other board members because he had to get the festivities for Spirit Week going.

Seungkwan, along with Nayeon and Jungkook, held the Spirit Day contests in the mornings. It took 20 minutes in total to judge each class based on their collective or coordinated costumes. For Movie Day, half the freshman class decided to do Star Wars and the other half Star Trek. They’d brought in several remote controlled droids, which of course didn’t end well. One got trampled by the Sophomore class, and the other was taken hostage by the Seniors. Seungkwan tried his best to get everyone to calm down, even screaming into the mic to shut everyone up, but he couldn’t control the crowd. It took two of the PE Teacher’s whistles to calm down the crowd. When he announced the results, which was the Sophomore class for all dressing in Disney costumes, the room was in uproar. People were throwing props, screaming, arguing, etc., and Seungkwan simply walked out.

At lunch that day, Dino and Seokmin reprimanded him for not dressing up, saying that he as Vice President of the SBC, he should be dressing up.

“If you think _I_ should dress up, then you should be reprimanding Mingyu. He never participates. Even I dressed up for Pizza Day last year.” Seungkwan snapped.

“But are we talking about Mingyu?” Minghao asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Whatever, I’ll dress up for tomorrow. It’s Pajama Day, so it shouldn’t be that hard.” Seungkwan huffed.

The next day, Mingyu showed up. He was wearing some stupid fuzzy Christmas pajamas with reindeer all over them. There was a cloud of girls around him, making unnecessary amounts of noise, complimenting him and whatever while Seungkwan was trying to get everyone in line.

“MINGYU. We have to work now!” He shouted at him. Mingyu’s head whipped around and he immediately flashed Seungkwan one of his “award-winning” smiles before saying something to the group of girls and jogging over.

“Hey, what should I do?” He asked once he was standing in front of Seungkwan.

“We’re here to judge their outfits,” Seungkwan said as he handed Mingyu one of the clipboards with the judging sheet on it, “Here’s the criteria. Try not to be biased.”

“Alright.” Mingyu nodded. Seungkwan turned to walk away but he heard his name come out of Mingyu’s mouth.

“I, uh, I like your pajamas.” He said. Seungkwan frowned and kept on walking. He was wearing his silver, satin PJ’s, nothing special. He should’ve been saving those stupid compliments of his for the girls who were obviously dressed to impress him.

Judging went easier than last time, since there were no opportunities for people to cause a scene with props. Actually scratch that, some disgusting heathen brought in a body pillow with a half-dressed girl on it, which was confiscated by the Administration. The whole Junior class was dressed in onesies, most mismatched, but a few students banded together, all dressed in Pokemon onesies. Seokmin was there, with some girl Seungkwan didn’t know, but they both had makeup on, red circles on their cheeks with black lips and noses. It was cute.

The Junior class took the win.

Mingyu had caught him in the hallway during the day and told him that he’d be joining the judging for the rest of the week. Seungkwan wanted to say that he was glad that Mingyu wanted to do his work, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t at all excited to have Mr. Popular bringing in hoards of people for the judging event. It made all their jobs harder, and they’d have even more difficult trying to reign people in. Of course, he’d just put up with it and rant about it to his friends afterwards, it was his job after all.

The next morning, he walked into a gym full of tourists. There were sandals, Hawaiian printed polos, sun hats, sunglasses, and cameras. Mingyu, as expected, was dressed up, too. He had on a Hawaiian sunset tee on accompanied by khaki shorts and socks with sandals. There were a pair of sunglasses resting on top of his unstyled brown hair.

Nayeon and Jungkook were dressed up, too, leaving Seungkwan the only one out of the four not dressed for the occasion.

“Where’s your outfit, Kwan?” Mingyu asked, gesturing towards his normal school day outfit.

Seungkwan screamed internally. “Don’t call me that, I didn’t have time this morning.”

Mingyu just shrugged as Seungkwan handed him the judging clipboard. That day, Seungkwan started with the Seniors. They, like most of the other students in the room, were dressed in the typical Hawaiian tourist get up. It was kind of hard to judge because of that, but the Seniors had props, so that gave them the upper hand.

When he got to the Freshman, he was periodically looking up at the group and down at his clipboard. He was checking off a few boxes when he heard someone say, “HEY!” and he looked up.

There was a group of like, five Freshman boys, looking right at him, pulling at their eyes. He immediately glared at them, erasing the few checks he’d just put down. He walked away but he could hear them yelling at him, throwing slurs at him like rocks. He turned to tell them off, but guess who was already there? Kim Mingyu.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He said, glaring down at the group of boys. It was clear that Mingyu was angry, seeing that his normal carefree face was replaced by a cold stare and a furrowed brow. The gym was quiet, all the eyes and ears trained on Mingyu and the boys.

One of the kids stepped forward, looking up at Mingyu. “Nothin’, just teasing that chink over there. Got a problem with that?”

“Yes,” Mingyu hissed, picking the kid up by his collar, “I do.”

Seungkwan could hear the gym doors being opened, possibly to go get a teacher, but he was too focused on Mingyu. He’d never seen him so mad before. It was the complete opposite of the cool-headed, careless Mingyu he was so used to.

The kid was struggling to get out of Mingyu’s grasp. Seungkwan closed his eyes when he saw a fist being thrown. A sickening crack was heard, and people were gasping. He opened his eyes and saw Mingyu with blood streaming from his nose, but he was still glaring at the kid. The next few seconds happened in slow motion for Seungkwan. He saw Mingyu reel his arm back, curling his hand into a fist, and then it started to come forward. His eyes were wide when he saw Mingyu’s fist collide with the kid’s face. A second later, and the kid was on the floor, hands clutching his face, and a group of teachers was running into the gym. They grabbed Mingyu and dragged him out of the doors, then the Freshman.

The news spread quickly that Mingyu decked a Freshman. There were a lot of rumors going around, too, but Seungkwan was too worried about Mingyu to pay attention to them. He got his nose broken because he was defending him. As much as he hated being indebted to Mingyu, he didn’t care about getting even, he just wanted to see if Mingyu was okay.

In the nurse’s office, Mingyu was sitting in a chair, a cold pack pressed to his nose. He was glaring at the floor, but the second he saw Seungkwan, his eyes lit up.

“Hey, Seungkwan.” He said, a bit muffled.

“Hey Mingyu…” Seungkwan mumbled. He felt really shitty about it seeing Mingyu like that.

“Um, so,” He started looking down at the linoleum floor, “I just, I wanted to come and say thanks. For defending me, that is. Thanks, Mingyu.”

He could tell Mingyu was beaming at him from under the cold pack. “It’s all good, Kwan. Someone had to teach that little shit a lesson.”

Seungkwan looked up, meeting eyes with Mingyu. Slowly, he walked over and sat down next to him.

“But, I still feel bad. Your nose is broken because of me…” He sighed.

“Uh, well, no it isn’t. I could’ve just not done anything and let them keep cursing at you until you screamed bloody murder at them, but I didn’t. My broken nose isn’t anyone’s fault but mine.”

“Yeah, but now I owe you a favor.” Seungkwan said, frowning. Mingyu let out a sharp laugh before groaning in pain, clutching his nose.

“I mean, you don’t have to. You already do so much for me.” Mingyu shook his head. Of course he did a lot for Mingyu. If he didn’t, he’d be skinned alive.

“This is personal, though, so I _do_ owe you one.” Seungkwan retorted. He wasn’t going to let Mingyu get out of that one. Paperwork and leading meetings was one thing. Taking care of a racist prick was another.

“Alright…” Mingyu said, “When can I cash in that favor?”

Seungkwan frowned. “Any time you want?”

“Oh…” He breathed, gazing down at the ground, “Then… go with me to Hoco?”

 

-

 

Minghao was laughing his lungs out, alongside Dino who was choking on his lunch.

“Did you say yes, Kwannie?” Seokmin asked, putting a hand on Seungkwan’s shoulder.

“OF COURSE I DID, HE ASKED A FAVOR!” Seungkwan growled. Dino went into another coughing fit while Minghao patted his back, trying to be helpful.

“Damn, Seungkwan, of all the things to get yourself into. A hoco date with Kim Mingyu?” Minghao wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye, struggling to keep his composure.

“You know I’m a man of my word, Hao.” Seungkwan said, “And it’s not a date. He doesn’t even like me.”

“Seungkwan… I-- nevermind.” Dino said. He was no longer in danger of dying by asphyxiation, thank god.

“No no no, you what?” Seungkwan asked. He was leaning across the table to stare into Dino’s eyes, but Dino was rolling his eyes.

“Nothing, if you’re that oblivious, then you deserve to stay clueless.” He replied, meeting Seungkwan’s eyes. There was a mischievous sparkle in Dino’s eye. What was he missing?

“But does that mean you’re not coming to the sleepover?” Seokmin asked, pouting, shaking Seungkwan’s shoulder.

“Of course I’m still coming, I’ll just be late.” He assured. That seemed to satisfy Seokmin, who went back to eating his lunch, nodding to himself.

“Is your date dropping you off?” Minghao smirked, staring at a frowning Seungkwan.

Seungkwan took a deep breath. “We’ll see, Hao, and what about Jun? I thought you were skipping out to go with _him_.”

“W-WHAT? Hell no, never, I wouldn’t ever, do you know who I am?” Minghao sputtered. They were both glaring at each other now. Dino was smiling behind his hand, watching the scene.

“Of course, you’re Xu Minghao, captain of the dance team and the only person who could ever fall in love with Wen Junhui.” Seungkwan said, looking around innocently, as if he didn’t just sass the hell out of Minghao.

“Watch yourself, Boo Seungkwan, I’m out to get you now.” Minghao grumbled, crossing his arms.

“What are you gonna wear? Last time I checked, the only suit you own doesn’t fit you anymore.” Dino put in. He was right, he had a suit from middle school still sitting in his closet, unused since his middle school graduation.

“Guess I’ll have to go shopping…” Seungkwan mumbled.

What the hell was he getting himself into.


	3. Pep Rally

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys welcome back to TWIHAY, I am on vacation right now so I have time to write. Sorry this took so long and that I'm not updating as frequently as I'd like, but I hope you enjoy! Thank you!

That Friday might’ve been the busiest Friday Seungkwan had ever had. He’d come in early in the morning to decorate the hallways for the day’s pep rally, dragging himself out of bed at 6 a.m., and spent hours putting up those flimsy paper streamers up on the walls, painting banners, and managing the other decorators on duty. He had to scream at a few freshmen who decided a paint fight would be a good idea so early in the morning. Lucky for him, the decorations were finished on time, and he still had time to go over the day with the SBC.

“Alright everyone, it’s pep rally day, and you know what that means.” Seungkwan sighed, looking at each member.

“Finally time to relax?” Lucas asked. Seungkwan rolled his eyes.

“No.”

“Oh...”

“It means,” Seungkwan began, “We have to be on our A-Game, especially those of us helping out with the pep rally. We have to make sure everything goes smoothly so we can have a nice relaxing weekend at Homecoming, or at home. That said, let’s go over everything. The pep rally doesn’t start til after lunch, so after the last lunch shift, we have to go straight to the gym instead of class. Mrs. Johnson sent out an email excusing us. We have to get props and stuff ready for performances and games, which I am putting Nayeon and Jungkook in charge of. While they’re doing that, I’ll do a soundcheck with the techs with Mingyu. Lucas, you and Wendy are helping with clean up, and that’s it. The rest of you are free to enjoy the pep rally”

“Wait, I thought _I_   was cleaning up with Lucas.” Jungkook frowned.

“No way in hell. You two can’t get any work done together.” Seungkwan said, rolling his eyes again. “Any other questions? No? Good, then I’ll see you all after lunch.”

Seungkwan stood up to leave, as did the others, but he was stopped by a certain Kim Mingyu grabbing onto his arm.

“Hey, Kwan, wanna swing by the cafeteria with me?” Mingyu looked at him expectant and… nervous?

Seungkwan took his arm back and stared at him. “No, I don’t. I have important things to do. Things you’re supposed to do.”

“Oh, then let me come with you!” Mingyu countered.

“Don’t you have anyone else to bother? I’m _busy_ , Mingyu.” Seungkwan huffed before leaving. He didn’t spare him another glance, missing Mingyu’s crestfallen expression. He had to go over the schedule of the pep rally one more time with Mr. Smith and Mrs. Johnson so he could write it down on a note card for Mingyu. He didn’t trust him to do it from memory. Last year, he made the mistake of letting Mingyu do it on his own, but that turned out to be a disaster. He got all the games and performances mixed up, couldn’t remember names, and stumbled through his whole script. It embarrassed the SBC, and they all ended up getting reprimanded by Mr. Smith and Mrs. Johnson instead of just Mingyu. That pissed Seungkwan off to no end. So, he’d do anything in his power to stop anything like that from happening again.

He found their two supervisors and asked for a quick run-through. Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult and he had it all written down in no time. After that, he stopped by his locker to grab a few books, then headed to class.

The day went by slowly. He blamed it on the fact that he had math and science first thing in the morning. They were both his least favorite subject, only because he wasn’t the best at it. Sure, he could keep up and had no trouble maintaining a decent grade in both classes, but he still wished they were easier for him.

After Math and Science, he had choir, the only enjoyable class of the day. He shared the class with Seokmin, which made it twice as enjoyable as it already was.

Unfortunately, the director wasn’t there that day and told them to just relax instead of rehearsing.

“Did you go shopping yet?” Seokmin asked him as they sat doing nothing. They tried to make the best of the situation by playing games, but they both quickly became bored of it.

“No, I haven’t had any free time this week. If I had known I was gonna go, I would’ve went shopping before I got so busy.” He replied.

“Then you’d better go soon,” Seokmin nodded, “You should ask Minghao to style you.”

Seungkwan snorted. “He’d tell me to do it myself since I waited so long.”

Seokmin squinted at him then started furiously tapping away at his phone.

“Hey if you’re asking him-”

“He says he’ll do it.”

He sighed. “Of course he will. Only because it’s you asking. You’d better come along, too.”

 

\--

It was showtime. Everyone from the SBC that had volunteered to help had shown up in the gym on time, except Mingyu. Seungkwan didn’t bother being mad about it and just moved on.

“Nayeon, Jungkook, the props and equipment for the games are in the gym supply closet. After you’re done bringing them out, set them in an orderly fashion to the side,” He instructed, “Then get anything else from Mrs. Johnson’s room. I don’t really remember what it is, but she said it’s in plastic bags behind her desk.”

The two were off with a quick nod.

“Wendy and Lucas, you guys are on standby until they need help after the games and performances.” He looked over at his two remaining members. Lucas gave him an ‘OK’ sign and Wendy gave him a thumbs up. Now he just had to find Mingyu and get him to do the soundcheck and go over his notecards.

He walked out of the gym doors and rounded a corner when he bumped into someone, who caught him by the arms.

“Oh, hey Kwan. Sorry I’m late.” It was Mingyu

“Sure you are, now let’s go do the soundcheck.” Seungkwan said, turning and pulling the tall boy along.

The Tech crew gave Mingyu a mic and ran a few tests to see if it worked. The first one kept cutting out, but the second one seemed to work perfectly. Once they gave him the OK, Seungkwan pulled him away from the sound booth and handed him the notecards.

“Here’s the schedule/notes I made for you. Try to memorize some of it before going out there, but don’t go without them.” He said as he pushed the cards into Mingyu’s hand.

“O-oh, thanks, Kwan. I promise I won’t mess up this time.” Mingyu said. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but Seungkwan had to go talk to Mr. Smith about gathering the Homecoming court, so he walked off. Time was limited since they’d be calling the whole school into the gym for the pep rally in less than 15 minutes.

He found Mr. Smith on the gym floor, talking to a few students who Seungkwan assumed were performers. He waited for them to be done, stepping up quickly when they were, then asked Mr. Smith where the Homecoming court was meeting.

“They’re going to meet in the cafeteria. Did you guys get the props for them?” Mr. Smith said.

“Yes, Jungkook and Nayeon went and got them.” Seungkwan nodded. His business was officially all taken care of.

He waited by the bleachers with Lucas and Wendy, anxious for the whole thing to be over already. Students were filing into the gym at a sluggish pace. He could see Mingyu leaning on a wall under one of the basketball hoops, reading through his note cards, his brow furrowed in concentration. He looked good when he wasn’t actively trying to look good.

When it seemed most of the students had taken their seats, Mr. Smith went over to Mingyu and gave him the signal.

Immediately, he put on his dazzling smile and waved to the crowd as he walked to the center of the floor. “Hello everyone, and welcome to the first pep rally of the year!”

The roar that erupted from the crowd was deafening. He could see Mingyu laughing to himself behind the note cards.

"It’s been a very fast start to the year, so I’d just like to welcome our upperclassmen back for their last year, and our Freshman for their first year. We’ve got a lot of stuff planned for you all, so sit tight and we’ll start off with a performance from the cheer squad!”

The cheer squad rolled out their mats on the ground, with the help of Seungkwan and Jungkook, and jumped right into their routine. They did the traditional school chant and a few demonstrations, including towers and tumbling. The performance was short. Wendy and Lucas ran onto the floor when they finished to roll the mats up.

“Wow!” Mingyu laughed, “That was great! Give a hand to the cheer squad, guys!”

A brief, thunderous applause rang throughout the gym before Mingyu continued.

“Okay, now for the first game, we’re gonna play blind tag. Four representatives have been chosen from each class, so could those four representatives please come down? And just in case you forgot, I’ll call out names.”

Mingyu began reading down the list of names as students came down from the bleachers to stand with him. After everyone was accounted for, Mingyu sent them over to Seungkwan and Nayeon to get suited up. Four out of the sixteen were going to be blindfolded and the designated taggers. The rest of the students would try to outrun them. While the four students were being blindfolded, Jungkook laid down a rope ring to keep them inside. If they played on the whole gym floor, the taggers would be at a significant disadvantage.

The sixteen students were herded into the ring after prep, and Mingyu gave the starting signal. Seungkwan didn’t care to watch a bunch of his peers chase each other around, so he let his eyes wander around the gym. The Freshmen were cheering loudly, most of them standing up in their seats. The few who were on the floor in front of the bleachers were the most enthusiastic of the crowd. They had face paint, beads, headgear, and trumpets.

Were those allowed?

He looked over at Mingyu, who was back leaning against the wall. There was a quaint smile on his face, as if he was enjoying the game, but not completely. He could’ve had other things on his mind.

A loud burst of cheers drew Seungkwan’s eyes to the center of the gym. The last person had been caught.

“Alright, that was amazing everyone! The victory goes to the Juniors!”

A mixture of boos and cheers.

“Well, we’re onto the next performance. This one’s gonna be a show stopper, so give a hand to the dance team.”

Thunderous applause took over the gym, then the lights went out. He could hear people running across the gym floor in the darkness. Music started to play, followed by a spotlight shining down on none other than Xu Minghao. He had a fierce expression, staring down the crowd in front of him. He started moving with the music, something along the lines of techno pop, and more lights flickered to life, illuminating the rest of the dance team. They were doing a routine Seungkwan heard about multiple times from their captain. Minghao had done the choreo himself, explaining to their group how he spent hours late into the night handcrafting the dance. From the looks of it, it was pretty damn good. The dancers weaved in between each other and pulled off moves he couldn’t ever imagine doing.

When the performance was over, the room exploded into applause. Seungkwan could barely hear himself think over the noise.

“That was amazing, don’t you think?” Mingyu said as he walked back to his spot, “They’re going to nationals this year, by the way. Can we get another round of applause?”

Seungkwan rolled his eyes as the noise level increased again. Did he have to ask for more applause after they’d already done it?

“It’s time for another game!!” Mingyu cheered. Seungkwan could hear an excited, “HELL YEAH,” come from the Freshman crowd.

Mingyu didn’t take much time explaining that they were going to do a tug-of-war competition. They had fifteen people from each grade to make up teams. The first round was Freshman against Sophomores then Juniors against Seniors. The first round ended with the Sophomores winning and the Seniors winning. The two went against each other for the second round before the Freshman and Juniors went against each other in a redemption round. The last round was Juniors vs. Seniors again. They had several close calls on both ends, but the Seniors came out Victorious once again.

“Okay everyone, give it up for the Seniors! That was our second to last game, guys. Next is our last performance from the gymnastics team.” Mingyu announced, running back to his spot on the wall.

It was Seungkwan and Jungkook’s time to shine again. They helped the gymnasts roll out their practice mats before the performance, making sure they stuck together to prevent any accidents.

They hurried back when the music was cued and the gymnasts started their routine. They did a demonstration of several different flips before doing a competition between two members. Seungkwan wasn’t really sure what they were doing, but it involved a lot of cartwheels and flipping. The performance ended with all the gymnasts running from opposite ends of the mats and doing flips with the music.

“A fantastic performance from our fantastic gymnastics team!” Mingyu shouted into the mic. A chorus of agreement came from the crowd in the form of more yelling.

“Now, this is the final game of the afternoon. Who’s gonna take home the prize? So far, the Juniors have one point and the Seniors have one as well. The other grades don’t have any points, unfortunately."

"For our last game, we're going to play basketball shoot out! The team who can get the most baskets in 30 seconds wins! AND-- the winning grade gets TWO points!!"

They were gonna use the hoop Mingyu had been standing under, so instead of going back there when the game started, he came to stand with Seungkwan.

"Hey. Are you enjoying the pep rally?" Mingyu grinned down at him.

"As much as I enjoy watching paint dry." Seungkwan answered dryly. He would admit it was interesting to sit and watch a pep rally, but it wasn't really enjoyable.

"You must be having a really good time, then." Mingyu snorted.

"Yeah, I'm shaking with excitement, look." Seungkwan held up a hand to show. Mingyu laughed behind his note cards and put a hand on Seungkwan's shoulder.

"That was good, Kwan," Mingyu grinned, "It looks like the Seniors are almost done, so I should get going."

Seungkwan grabbed Mingyu's arm before he could go. "Wait, Mingyu. What color is your tie for Hoco?"

"Uh… blue? Why?"

"We should match, right?"

Mingyu's jaw dropped, his face painting itself a vibrant red. He said something, but the sudden noise from the crowd drowned it out. Seungkwan let go of his arm, smiling, and pushed him. Mingyu blinked a few times before turning and going.

"G-great shots everyone! Looks like we have a winner!” Mingyu stuttered into the mic. “Let’s show some sportsmanship and give everyone one last round of applause!”

Seungkwan joined in on the applause this time, glad the whole thing was almost over. Only one activity remained.

Nayeon and himself snuck out of the gym whilst Mingyu gave his ending speech. They had to help the homecoming court get dressed in their props.

Inside the cafeteria, the homecoming court, aside from Mingyu, was waiting around the table with the props on it. The two of them walked over to them and told them the run-down. They’re gonna get dressed up, line up at the door from youngest to oldest, then go at Mrs. Johnson’s signal. The Freshman pair were given a purple sash and silver, plastic crown. The Sophomore pair were given the same purple sash, but were given a fancier plastic crown. The Junior pair were given a silver sash and golden, plastic crown, and the Senior pair donned golden sashes and a more expensive looking golden crown. The Senior pair also were given those weird capes with the white and black dotted trim.

Mingyu ran in just as the court was lining up at the door.

“Do you always have to be late to everything?” Seungkwan sighed as he handed Mingyu his attire.

“Only when it matters the most!” Mingyu laughed. He quickly put on his sash and crown, then went to stand next to his female counterpart.

Seungkwan and Nayeon, now that their job was done, went back to the gym. Mr. Smith was now at the center of the gym, giving a speech about the rules and reminders. The rest of the gym was relatively quiet, with a low, dull murmur running through the crowd. He couldn’t tell what Mr. Smith was supposed to be talking about, but he did know he was telling another old story of his. Something about, “When I was your age,” and, “She didn’t like the place I chose for dinner.” Seungkwan tried his best to give all his attention to Mr. Smith, but whatever message he was trying to get across had fallen off the bridge a while ago, and Seungkwan wasn’t interested.

After another minute, Mrs. Johnson came in through the gym doors, with the Homecoming court following her. She led them over to where Mr. Smith had stopped telling his story, then took the mic from him.

“Now, for the final event of the pep rally, I’ll be introducing your Homecoming court.” She said. The noise level picked up again as she asked the court to line up in their pairs. She read the list of names out, pausing at every burst of applause. Seungkwan had to cover his ears when she read Mingyu’s name. It seemed like everyone in the room was cheering for him.

“Thank you all for participating in the year’s first pep rally, there’s more to come, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the day!” Mrs. Johnson walked off of the gym floor, narrowly escaping the horde of students making their way out of the gym.

Mingyu came to stand with them again as the rest of their peers filed out. In fact, the whole of the Homecoming court was standing with them now, talking amongst themselves. Except for Mingyu, that was. He stood idly next to his SBC members, staring at the dwindling crowd. It was weird to see him so quiet, not talking to anyone or anyone talking to him. He seemed distracted; There was something in his eyes Seungkwan couldn’t really decipher. An emotion he wasn’t used to seeing in Mingyu. He didn’t want to be worried, but he was.

The crowd was mostly gone now, so the SBC members and the Homecoming court took their leave. Only a half hour remained of what was supposed to be the last class of the day. Seungkwan had Public Speaking left. He let his feet drag as he walked to class. He wasn’t too excited to spend half an hour writing the rest of his third speech of the year so far. It wasn’t even that far into the school year and they were already writing, which came as a surprise to him. He thought they’d be learning the Psychological and Sociological parts of Public Speaking before actually writing speeches.

He walked into the classroom and took his seat. Quietly, he took out his laptop, then started to work.

He hoped tomorrow wouldn’t be so busy and stressful.


	4. Getting Ready and Another Perspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all, welcome back. It's been a while, I know. Sorry about that, I'm cranking out a bunch of things right now and I'm kinda back-logged on my other stories. But, it's fine, I'm good and I am here to deliver!!! I threw in some WonSoon because they're literally so cute and I couldn't help myself haha! The second half of this chapter is in Mingyu's perspective and we get to see his side of this whole fiasco, so I hope y'all are ready for the wild ride that will be the next chapter. Also sorry about the formatting, I do this in Google Docs and nothing ever transfers over as I want it to, but anywho, I will deal with it. As always, thank you for reading, please leave Kudos and a comment if you will, and enjoy! Thank you

Seungkwan’s day started very hectic. He woke up at his standard 10 a.m. to his phone buzzing like an angry hornet. He picked it up seeing several calls and texts from an impatient Xu Minghao and a couple messages from Seokmin. He opted to see what Seokmin wanted first, not keen on seeing what obscenities Minghao was furiously texting him.

Apparently, they were due to go to the mall in the next two hours, but Minghao was busy, so they had to go earlier than that. Of course, Seungkwan didn’t know that because: No one told him, he was asleep, and Minghao never tells anyone anything. That was the reason for both of them sending him a barrage of texts and calls.

He got up and dressed as quickly as he could then raced to the mall. They told him to meet them outside some store he wasn’t familiar with, but he found it anyways, and there they were. Seokmin was talking to an annoyed looking Minghao, who was scrolling through his phone. When Seokmin spotted him, he waved him over.

“Sorry for being late guys. No one told me anything so…” Seungkwan said. Minghao visibly rolled his eyes.

“Well, you’re here now, so let’s go!” Seokmin grinned, grabbing Seungkwan’s wrist and pulling him along.

They stopped at some weird store Seungkwan would never step foot in. They had a lot of formal clothes and fashion forward apparel, basically stuff that Minghao would wear. He was forced to try on a number of things, and he had to admit, they weren’t too bad. Minghao was picking stuff that looked nice on him, but stayed within his semi-plain fashion bubble. Minghao picked out a beret to go along with a baby blue, pinstripe shirt, which Seungkwan decided was definitely going to be part of his outfit. They left after Seungkwan couldn’t find anything else to try-on, but he was happy that he at least had the shirt and beret.

The next store was another one of Minghao’s stops, however, unlike the last one, it seemed more popular. Minghao focused on getting him a blazer and some pants, bringing over a dozen of each for him to try. There were a lot of different ones, your standard black or grey, a couple of white ones, but he kinda fell in love with the royal blue, velvet blazer Minghao found. It went well with the shirt and beret, so why not? So, he ended up buying the blazer and some standard black slacks. Their last order of business was to get a tie, and Seungkwan was going to find the perfect one.

There was a strictly formal wear shop at the end of the mall. Not many people hung around there. They saw a couple of people walking away from it, but they were the only ones heading towards it.

The inside of the shop was… fancy. The carpet was way too plush for any store in a mall, and all the staff were dressed in suits. A lot of their ties were displayed behind cases, but they did find a small selection not encased like the crown jewels.

There were a lot of designer ties, with names he’d never heard of, but could tell were high-end because of the price and quality. Only four of the ties in the selection were blue. Two of them were royal blue, one with stripes and the other plain, and the other two were sky blue and indigo. He was reaching for the plain blue tie when Minghao suddenly grabbed his hand.

“I have a better idea.” He said. Seungkwan was dragged out of the store and into another, one specifically for accessories. They stopped in front of a menagerie of ribbons all mixed up in a bin. Minghao picked up a black one, and wrapped it around Seungkwan’s neck.

“I was thinking this would look better than a tie.” Minghao grinned, untying the ribbon. “But, it’ll be tied around your collar instead.”

“Wow, so cute, Minghao!” Seokmin laughed. Seungkwan glared at him, but didn’t say anything.

Minghao rushed them to buy it because he had somewhere to be in the next hour, but he had to get ready first. Seungkwan looked at him suspiciously, but didn’t say anything.

He said goodbye to the both of them and drove himself back home. He hung up his outfit on his closet door, but left the tie and beret to sit on his dresser. They wouldn’t fit on the hanger, anyway. An old pair of dress shoes sat at the top of his closet. They were black, so Seungkwan guessed they’d match pretty well, and he put them next at the foot of the closet door. Now, all he had to do was get things sorted with Mingyu.

Wait. How was he supposed to do that?

Seungkwan smacked himself in the face. He was supposed to get Mingyu’s number yesterday but he never did. Ugh, why did he have to forget such an important thing. He threw himself onto his bed with a dramatic sigh, wishing he could’ve just remembered something other than work for once. He picked up his phone and stared at the screen.

How could he get a hold of Mingyu…

“IDIOT!” He screamed at himself. He already had Mingyu’s number. He got it when he made the SBC groupchat, so all he had to do was get it from there. Genius hurts, he thought to himself.

He quickly pulled up the groupchat and then copy-pasted Mingyu’s number into his messaging app.

‘Hey Mingyu it’s Seungkwan,” He wrote, “I’m texting because I wanna know what your plan is for tonight.’

aaaaaand send-- now all he had to do was wait.

 

\--

 

If you asked, Mingyu wouldn’t openly agree to the fact that he got everything he wanted, but he knew it in his heart. There really wasn’t anything he couldn’t have, he had his popularity to thank for that. If he wanted his work done for him, he had friends who could get it done for him in a heartbeat. If he wanted a girl, there were tons lined up _just_ to talk to him. When he wanted a job, he had no trouble getting one because he was such a people person, and he was just that charming. Basically, the world was his and so was everything in it. Except for one thing.

Yes, he could get the things others wanted in an instant, but that’s not what he wanted. What he wanted was unattainable, so difficult to reach. Boo Seungkwan, the one so close, yet so far away from him. Seungkwan wanted nothing to do Mingyu, but Mingyu couldn’t help but follow him around.

Seungkwan was just so… attractive. He was gorgeous and adorable, with his round cheeks and eyes. His high cheekbones made him look like royalty, but Mingyu wasn’t all about looks (much to everyone’s surprise). Seungkwan’s personality was very complex. He had his coarse moments, like when he told Mingyu that they weren’t friends (which he had to admit hurt him and maybe he did cry a little bit about it to his best friends) and left without so much of a glance over his shoulder. But of course, that wasn’t all Seungkwan was. He was kind, attentive, strong-headed, and formidable. He ran the SBC basically all by himself, made sure everyone’s work got done, even Mingyu’s. He knew that was probably the reason Seungkwan didn’t want to hang around him. If he hung out more with Mingyu, that meant more work, and Mingyu didn’t blame him. He was inconsiderate towards his peers in the SBC for the longest time, only concerned with what he was interested in, leaving his work and responsibilities to Seungkwan. The Summer of Sophomore year was when he realized he was doing something wrong.  _Last_ summer was when he decided he was going to make a change. No more fooling around, no more ignoring how others feel, no more slacking off, and no more making Seungkwan hate his guts.

So, the start of Junior year was like this-- Mingyu cut off all his “friends” and started hanging out with only his best friends Wonwoo and Soonyoung, a.k.a. Hoshi. They’d been with him since preschool, and he hadn’t been spending as much time with them as he wanted recently. So, any time someone he vaguely knew wanted to hangout, he said he was going out with Hoshi and Wonwoo. Then, he started to make more of an effort to be more responsible instead of being a freeloader. He started doing his own homework again, studied hard, and tried his best to show up to every single SBC meeting he could. Even though he set alarms to wake him up for the early meetings, he still managed to sleep through them. He did make it to the meetings before they were over, though, which he counted as a victory. Every little bit counted.

Of course, not everything was rainbows and sunshine. He was trying to undo two years worth of damage, after all. Seungkwan’s interactions with him were tense and understandably hostile. Seungkwan saw him only as an annoyance, an obstacle in the way, which he was for quite a while. He wanted to change, though. He wanted Seungkwan to see that he could be responsible and dependable, just like he was supposed to be.

So, homecoming was that week. The SBC schedule was packed, and he was determined to do his best to get things done. He showed up to Monday’s meeting, but somehow missed that the costume judging started that day. Instead of sulking, like he normally would, he told himself he’d just show up tomorrow and do his job, and he did. Somehow he remembered it was pajama day and showed up in his favorite pajamas. They were a cute matching set with reindeer all over them. He got them from his grandmother a few Christmases ago, and he’s worn them to bed everyday since. The attention he got when he showed up for the judging was a little overwhelming. A cloud of girls were surrounding him, asking questions, touching him, and overall making him uncomfortable. He tried to be as polite as he could while trying to get away from them, but every move he made was countered. It wasn’t until Seungkwan called him over that he could escape. But of course, Seungkwan just had to be wearing the most eye-catching pj’s and Mingyu couldn’t help but be nervous and stare. A compliment managed to slip out, and he could feel Seungkwan’s eyes rolling as he turned around. He wasn’t at all sad about that. Not at all.

That afternoon after school was spent sitting on Wonwoo’s couch, letting all his emotions out while Wonwoo played video games and Hoshi fiddled with his phone.

“I’m just trying my best, but it seems like he doesn’t want anything to do with me.” Mingyu sniffed sadly, burying his face into Hoshi’s shoulder.

“Well, maybe you’re not doing it the right way. He thinks you’re annoying right?” Ouch. “Then change your tactic. Don’t just approach him, try doing other things, maybe try to do stuff for him.” Wonwoo said from the floor. He was seated in front of the couch between Hoshi’s legs, leaned forward and tapping furiously at his controller's buttons.

“Well, duh, of course he thinks you’re annoying if you’re always trying to talk to him and shit. Seungkwan’s all business, y’know. Get on his good side by being serious for once, Gyu.” Hoshi added. They both had a point. Seungkwan definitely wasn’t liking the normal approach, so he’d have to do it the way Seungkwan liked it. Not that he knew entirely what that was. Seungkwan was too capricious for Mingyu to know what exactly he liked.

“Okay, since you two are the experts, give me ideas. I’m already trying to do my job as SBC president, but what else can I be doing?” Mingyu asked, lifting his head from Hoshi’s shoulder and looking at him.

Said teen put his phone down and looked back. “I dunno, do something extra?”

“Explain.”

“What he means is,” Wonwoo interjected, “Go above and beyond. The extra mile. Seungkwan’s used to doing way too much work. You need to show him that you can do everything he can do, that you can work hard if you put your mind to it. If you take some of the work and stress off his plate, maybe he’ll start giving you the attention you so desperately want.”

“Hey! I’m not desperate!” He protested.

“Uhh, you’re pretty desperate, bitch.” Hoshi scoffed.

“Yeah, only desperate people try to come up with an elaborate plan to woo someone so unavailable.” Wonwoo nodded. Mingyu pretended like he didn’t just hear them gang up on him like that and changed the subject.

“Are you guys going to Homecoming?” He asked. They simultaneously let out a sigh.

“You’re seriously asking if we want to go hang out in a gym full of sweaty, under-dressed Freshmen and dance to trash music? Hard pass.” Hoshi said, poking Mingyu in the ribs. He shied away from the ticklish sensation, frowning halfheartedly at him.

“Honestly, I wasn’t even thinking about it until you said it. You’re gonna be on the Homecoming court, right?” Wonwoo said.

“Yeah I am. Again. I really don’t want to go, but I have to. Would you guys humor me for a night, please? I don’t want to hang out with a bunch of fake friends the whole night.” Mingyu sighed. Maybe next year he’d opt out of the Homecoming and prom voting.

“Hmm… or you could get a date? I don’t wanna go either, Gyu.” Hoshi said.

“Oh, come on, Soon, we didn’t go last year, why not?” Wonwoo put his controller down and turned to look at Hoshi. “We could match if you want. It’s just one night.”

“Pleaaase…” Mingyu pouted and shook Hoshi’s shoulder lightly. The other teen had a focused look on his face with his nose scrunched up, legs bouncing against the edge of the couch. Wonwoo gave him a Look™, one usually reserved for convincing Hoshi _not_ to do something.

Hoshi tried to counter with a smoldering glare, but ended up with an adorable pout instead.

“FINE!” Hoshi threw his hands up. “I give up! We’re going!”

Wonwoo smiled and patted Hoshi’s knee gently before turning back to his game.

“Thanks guys. You’re the best.” Mingyu pulled Hoshi in for a hug, smushing their cheeks together.

Hoshi patted his head before freeing himself from Mingyu’s grasp, giving him a pointed look. “Just because I agreed doesn’t mean you’re not getting away without a price, either. You have to find a date because you will NOT be third wheeling us at dinner and at the dance, okay? No excuses.”

“What happened to bros before hoes, Hosh?” Mingyu fake cried.

“Wonwoo’s both--”

“HEY!”

“Sorry, but you know it’s true. Anyway, you can’t slow dance with three people, Mingyu. I’ve tried it. Not fun, so get yourself a date or else you’re slow dancing with yourself.” Hoshi said, pointing a stern finger at Mingyu, who was sighing in defeat. Who was he supposed to ask to Hoco? He promised he’d be genuine, so he wasn’t just going to pick a random girl or guy to go with. There were several of his other friends who he could ask, but they probably didn’t want to go to Hoco, either. Of course, a nagging voice in his brain told him to ask Seungkwan, but he’d never go unless it was absolutely necessary. Whatever, he’d figure it out soon enough.

 

The next day’s judging was kind of fun. It was tourist day, so Mingyu raided his dad’s closet for an outfit. He went the whole mile, even braving the dangerous territory of socks with sandals. He was kind of excited to see what Seungkwan would wear, but when he showed up, Seungkwan was dressed in his normal clothing. He put on his fake, brave attitude and asked where his costume was to be met with a cold, indifferent answer. He was fine with that and didn’t press. Trying not to annoy Seungkwan was his goal from then on, so he would do his best not to.

He was chatting with a few Sophomores about their props when Mingyu heard whispers pick up around him. He turned his head a few times, looking for something of interest when he saw Seungkwan glaring at a group of Freshman boys. He couldn’t hear what was being said, but if Seungkwan looked that mad, it must’ve been something bad. He approached them, stone-faced and ready to take care of the situation. The boy that stepped towards him and tried to look tough had attitude coming off of him in waves. There was nothing more that Mingyu hated than a bad attitude. The boy’s words didn’t help his case, and soon enough, Mingyu had him by the collar. The boy’s feet didn’t even reach the floor. A fist was thrown, Mingyu’s nose was broken, and the favor was returned. They were both hauled off to the dean’s office. Luckily, Mingyu was let off with a warning after he let the dean know what had happened. He didn’t stick around to find out what happened to the Freshman.

He went down to the nurse’s office, trying to stop his nose from bleeding without moving it too much. An ice pack was pressed to his nose after it was deemed that the break wasn’t too bad. As long as he didn’t touch it, it would be fine in two weeks.

The cold of the ice pack seeped into his nose, effectively slowing the bleeding, and numbing some of the pain. A quick message was sent to his parents about his nose and what happened. He slipped his phone back into his pocket, opting to check for responses later.

“Great job, dumbass…” He whispered to himself. It was just his luck to break his nose a few days before Hoco. The nurse told him the pain would go away in at least three days, meaning that Friday, the last day before Hoco, would be his best bet on having a pain-free night. Fingers crossed.

Seungkwan came to check on him, and no, he was not excited to see him. Not one bit. He was told that he was owed a favor. Seungkwan did him favors all the time. It was personal, this time. Mingyu weighed his options then and there. The voice was back again, telling him that he should ask Seungkwan to go with him. It was the perfect opportunity…

He asked. The answer was yes. He was definitely excited. _Too_ excited.

 

\---

 

His finger hovered over the send button on a text made out to Seungkwan. It was Saturday and they hadn’t talked about arrangements all week. He was sat on his bed, nervously thinking of how to sound the least awkward as possible. The text read, “Hey Seungkwan, this is Mingyu! I was just texting you to ask you where you wanted to eat dinner, if it’s okay if we go with my friends, and what’s your address,” and he admitted it wasn’t worded the best way, but it was all he could do, being so nervous. He was about to finally click the send button when a message popped up.

 

_**Seungkwan** _

**‘Hey Mingyu it’s Seungkwan I’m texting because I wanna know what your plan is for tonight.’**  
_Sat 11:07 AM_

Oh. Well, there goes that problem.

_**Me** _

**‘Hey, Kwan! I was just about to text you!’**

**‘I can pick you up, where do you wanna go for dinner? Also, can we go with my friends? They wanna hang out with me for their last Hoco’**  
_Sat 11:09 AM_

Text sent, now it’s time to--

 

_**Seungkwan** _

**‘I’m good with anything and I’m fine with that are we going to dinner with them?’**  
_Sat 11:09 AM_

 

_**Me** _

**‘Well, I guess we can. They don’t mind. What’s your address?’**  
_Sat 11:10 AM_

_**Seungkwan** _

**‘23490 Magnolia Circuit’**

**‘When are you coming to get me?’**  
_Sat 11:13 AM_

 

_**Me** _

**‘Since the dance starts at 8, how about 6? The wait at the restaurant might be long, so…’**  
_Sat 11:13 AM_

 

_**Seungkwan** _

**‘Ok sounds good’**

**‘See you at 6’**  
_Sat 11:16 AM_

 

 

He sighed as he turned the screen off. Seungkwan was so weird. The lack of punctuation was weird. He never thought Seungkwan would leave out the punctuation while texting. He always used it when sending messages to the SBC. Weird.

He threw himself back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. In a few hours he’d be sitting at a dinner table with Seungkwan, trying not to choke on his food because he knows Seungkwan’s going to look good no matter what he wears. But Seungkwan would be nervous because he’s sitting with Mingyu, the guy he despises, and two of his weird friends. Mingyu knew so many things could go wrong that night. It was just something he was prepared for. Because he knew Seungkwan. Because he knew himself. Because he knew well enough that luck wasn’t on his side, and that he’d have to work hard to make magic happen, but he didn’t know if he had the energy to.

He took a deep breath, letting his eyes close.

Whatever happened, happened, and he’d try to make the best of it

 


End file.
